NFL draft analysts talking up CSU's Michael Gallup

The Rams have signed 21 players as off Wednesday's signing day, including players from 10 different states.
Chris Abshire

Michael Gallup caught a school-record 100 passes for 1,413 yards and seven touchdowns last fall for CSU's football team. The consensus All-American is projected as anywhere from a first- to sixth-round draft pick in this year's NFL draft.(Photo: Ron Chenoy/USA TODAY Sports)

NFL draft analysts are all over the board on where CSU receiver Michael Gallup might be selected. But they're all talking about him.

Fansided’s Maxwell Ogden said earlier this week Gallup is a first-round talent with “all the tools to emerge as the cream of the crop” among a talented group of receivers available in the 2018 draft. Jeff Cavanaugh of The Athletic ranked the Colorado State University receiver No. 2 among wide receivers in this year’s draft, behind only Alabama star Calvin Ridley.

“His film is a clinic on playing receiver,” Trapasso wrote. “… sharp route-running, effortless double moves, wins in contested-catch situations, yards after the catch, etc. You name it, Gallup excels at it.”

ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. also has Gallup ranked No. 10 and expects him to be selected no later than the third or fourth round and possibly as high as the second round, if he has a strong showing next week at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis.

“I think he’s, at worst, probably a 3 or a 4, could be a 2,” Kiper said Wednesday on a conference call. “But he certainly, I think, has helped himself. If he has a good combine, the second round is not out of the realm of possibility.”

Kiper said Gallup performed well in practices leading up to the Jan. 27 Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama, under the watchful eye of general managers and scouts representing every NFL team, and in the game itself. The 6-foot-1, 195-pounder was the leading receiver on the North team with three catches for 60 yards, the longest a 31-yarder from Wyoming quarterback Josh Allen, who Kiper expects to be the No. 1 overall selection in the draft.

“He certainly, I thought, held his own and did a nice job at the Senior Bowl practices,” Kiper said. “He had a drop, but you’re going to have that; you’ve got new entities down there, and you’re adjusting to a pressure-packed environment.”

NFL.com’s Steve Smith listed Gallup as one of his 10 receivers to watch at the NFL Scouting Combine, noting that the CSU receiver “has a PhD in route running … great body control and can out-jump defenders regularly.” The knock against Gallup, Smith said, is that his “smooth movements make it seem like he’s bored when he isn’t directly involved in the game.”

Gallup had one of the best seasons by a CSU receiver last fall, catching a school-record 100 passes for 1,413 yards and seven touchdowns. He was No. 3 nationally in receptions, No. 5 in receiving yards and No. 6 in average yards per game (108.7) and led the nation in catches of 10 yards or more (60).

Gallup was voted one of three finalists for the Biletnikoff Award as the nation’s outstanding receiver and was named a consensus All-American, becoming just the fourth CSU player ever to earn that distinction.

Gallup, who spent two years at Butler County (Kansas) Community College before coming to CSU, had 76 catches for 1,272 yards and 14 touchdowns in 2016, his first season with the Rams. Although he only played two seasons at CSU, his 21 TD catches are No. 2 on the school’s all-time list and his 2,685 career receiving yards are No. 6.

Follow reporter Kelly Lyell at twitter.com/KellyLyell and facebook.com/KellyLyell.news and listen to him talk CSU sports at 11:35 a.m. Thursdays on KFKA radio (AM 1310) and 10:45 a.m. Saturdays on Denver’s ESPN radio (AM 1600).